WHO Country Office in Afghanistan

Dr Sima Samar joins the Stop TB Afghanistan - Afghanistan

Kabul March 2011 – Dr Sima Samar, a well-known human rights activist, politician and women rights supporter has joined the Stop TB partnership - Afghanistan, as Chairperson of its Coordinating Board. Dr Samar is also the Chairperson of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission. From 2005 to 2009, she was the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Sudan. She is a medical doctor and obtained her degree in medicine in 1982 from Kabul University.

After living in exile for nearly two decades because of the conflict in Afghanistan, Dr Samar returned to her homeland in 2001 to assume a cabinet post in the Afghan Transitional Administration led by Hamid Karzai. In the interim government, she served as Deputy President and then as Minister for Women's Affairs. In 2008, on the eve of International Human Rights Day, Dr Samar received the Asia Democracy and Human Rights Award; in addition to numerous other awards she has received from around the world.

In 1984, after the communist regime arrested her husband, Samar and her young son fled to the safety of nearby Pakistan. Distressed by the total lack of health care facilities for Afghan refugee women, she established, in 1989, the Shuhada Organization and the Shuhada Clinic in Quetta, Pakistan. Her nongovernmental organization also ran hospitals, schools, literacy courses for women and men and income-generation projects both inside and outside of Afghanistan.

After joining the Stop TB Partnership - Afghanistan, while addressing a national gathering on World TB Day, Dr Samar stressed the need to address the high proportion of women with tuberculosis in the country. She also vowed to continue fighting for the rights of women and improving access to tuberculosis care for the marginalized women of Afghanistan.

Afghanistan commemorates World TB Day, March 2011

Kabul - 29 March, 2011. “Women and children, the vulnerable segments of the population, should be the focus of our fight against tuberculosis in Afghanistan now”, said Dr Surryaya Dalil, acting Minister of Public Health, while addressing the main event of World TB Day held at the Ministry of Public Health building in Kabul. The ceremony was well attended by tuberculosis patients, activists, health workers, national and international partner organizations, school children, media and parliamentarians. Dr Dalil said that drug-resistant forms of tuberculosis may become a major challenge as treatment of such cases was very expensive. She highlighted the importance of vaccination for children, developing a comprehensive package of services for women affected by tuberculosis based on nationwide research.

Dr Seema Samar, the chairperson of the Stop TB Partnership, also a director of a human rights organization in Afghanistan, stressed the need to address the link between tuberculosis and poverty and its consequences. She said that the fight against tuberculosis was not just the responsibility of government, everyone should play a part. WHO Representative, Dr Ahmad Shoudul, noted that despite being preventable and curable, tuberculosis still caused the death of more than 110 000 lives in the Eastern Mediterranean Region every year. He shared the message of Dr Hussein A. Gezairy, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean, with the audience. He highlighted work in tuberculosis among women and children, addressing national capacity gaps and developing interventions for cross-border collaboration with neighbouring countries as major areas of focus in the current year.

Children sing to mark the Day

TB Day was commemorated across Afghanistan on 24 March, except in Kabul, where the main event took place on 29 March because of national holidays on the eve of Nowruz. Activities were held in different regions, including 34 provinces and 320 health facilities with the support of the Tuberculosis Control Assistance programme, BRAC Afghanistan and WHO. These activities included:

media campaigns
printing and dissemination of messages and information fact sheets
production and dissemination of information, education and communication and advocacy materials, including an annual report, banners, posters, calendars, pens, note books
involvement of political personalities in tuberculosis activities
conducting talk shows, round table on different national and local television and radio
awareness campaigns through mosques with the assistance of religious leaders
recognition of the good work of the national tuberculosis programme team, including field staff.

Afghanistan is among 22 high-burden tuberculosis countries of the world. In 2010 alone, there were 53 000 cases of tuberculosis and 9000 lost their lives due to the disease in the previous year. For tuberculosis care in Afghanistan, the national tuberculosis programme is supported by a coalition of national and international partners represented by a national partnership constituted in 2009.

Expression of Interest (EOI) MoPH

Afghanistan CCM has planned to submit a proposal for Global Fund to fights against Tuberculosis (TB) as well as the Health System Strengthening (HSS) of Afghanistan.
Afghanistan CCM hereby announces Expression of Interest (EOI) for Principle Recipient for Global Fund Round 10.

Call for expression of interest for Principle Recipients (PRs) for Global Fund R10 Tuberculosis (TB) and Health System Strengthening (HSS)

The Global Fund to Fights AIDs, TB and Malaria (GFATM) is a multi- billion- dollar International Financing mechanism intended to help advance the fight against AIDs, TB and Malaria by dramatically increasing the availability of funding for practical health initiatives. Funded activities include both piloting of new innovative programs and scaling up of existing interventions.

Country Coordinating Mechanism submits proposals to the Global Fund.

The proposals are reviewed by the Technical Review Panel (TRP), which makes recommendations to the Global Fund Board.

In its Round eight of Funding, the Global Fund approved proposals for TB, Malaria and HSS. Afghanistan CCM decided to submit country proposal (for Tuberculosis and HSS) to Global Fund R10 to support Tuberculosis control and address further key bottlenecks within the health system which are cross cutting to three disease control and other health programs over the next three years.

Description of the submission process:

The Country Coordinating Mechanism (CCM) is calling for letter of interest for the role of principle recipient having minimum required capacities in the following areas.

Financing Management System.

Procurement and Supply Management.

Monitoring and Evaluation.

There may be multiple Principle Recipients to apply for each area. In TB, agreed interventions are included but not limited to sputum transportation, prevalence survey control of MDR and so on. In HSS part, there are two main interventions. 1: Community system strengthening including Community Nursing Education Program, training of female community supervisors, extensive evaluation of CBHC program and support to provincial health offices to enable them better discharge their responsibility regarding effective support to CBHC program and 2: strengthening labs system including but not limited to, establishing the standards, systematic dissemination of the standards, and establishing reference labs at region level. For further information please contact:

Dr. Abdul Wali Ghayur, Head of Health System Strengthening / MoPH
Tel: 0799353178.
Or Dr. Khalid Seddiq Head of TB program/MOPH Tel: 0700289410.
Regarding PR requirements and Global Fund Policy, please refer to website www.theglobalfund.org

Or Dr. Khalid Seddiq, NTP Director and Dr. Abdul Wali Ghayur, Head of HSS, Ministry of Public Health Kabul Afghanistan for details of the submission process, requirements, objectives and services delivery areas in each of the diseases components and HSS.
E-mail ntpafgdirec@gmail.com and drabwali@yahoo.com

Submission must be in electronic and/ or hard copies (5 copies of all the submitted document along with the original documents), including all documents required. All applications should include a signed cover letter (addressing Afghanistan CCM Chairperson or Vice Chairperson) with the contact person clearly identified. Send electronic PR application to: afghanccm@yahoo.com

Address: CCM Secretariat, WHO, Country Office for Afghanistan UNOCA compound, Jala abad Road, Puli Charkhi, Kabul, Afghanistan

Application must be submitted by close of business (August 14th, 2010) to Dr. Helmand Hassas, CCM Secretariat Technical Officer or Mr. Abdul Wahid Wafajow, CCM Secretariat’s Coordinator.
Mobile: 0700078626 or 0708183376
E-Mail: afghanccm@yahoo.com

Ministry of Public Health and WHO launch “Comprehensive ArcGIS training programme for public health experts and data managers of Afghanistan”
April, 2010


	Left to Rrigh: Mr Arie Hoekman (UNFPA Representative), Dr Bashir Noormal (DG APHI), Mr Peter J Graaff (WHO Representative) and Ms Rashida Bano (Epidemiologist WHO)

On 12 April 2010 WHO and the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH)-APHI completed their first comprehensive training on the Geographical Information System (GIS). To bring disease surveillance systems to the next level, both local and international public health officials must take advantage of advances in information technology. Disease Early Warning System (DEWS) Afghanistan and its partners WHO, United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) started to roll the ball and initiated the process of training public health professionals in the field and improving disease surveillance in the country.

“This training is a stepping stone to build future capacity of our public health managers and surveillance units at regional level” said WHO Representative for Afghanistan Mr Peter Graaff in the closing ceremony held in WHO-Afghanistan country office.

He added “This is the first GIS training programme launched in Afghanistan for public health experts and data managers. We are glad to mention that today 15 people will be certified not only by us but also by ESRI international, these participants are public health experts, including regional surveillance officers and data managers representing all regions of Afghanistan”.

This training will be followed by establishing GIS units in all regions and at the federal level. All units will be further strengthened with time through involving other departments of health, training new batches. This training will be offered yearly for new batches of public health experts and data managers; for those who are already trained, four refresher trainings per year are planned.

Through this training DEWS programme has involved other important programmes working on and linked to disease surveillance and control included polio, the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI), Roll Back Malaria (RBM) and Emergency Humanitarian Assistance (EHA). This was highly appreciated by participating units. The closing ceremony ended by certificate distribution for participants and software distribution for regional surveillance units.

Report on city cleaning in Heart

Afghanistan celebrates the World Health Day
7 April 2010

World Health Day is marked on 7 April each year. The theme for this year focused on “Urbanization and Health”. Afghanistan joined World Health Day 2010 with efforts being stepped up to address urban health issues. This year’s health-related events and activities are taking place in six cities (Kabul, Jalalabad, Kandahar, Herat, Kunduza and Mazar-e-Sharif) as people and organizations join the World Health Organization’s (WHO) campaign “1000 cities 1000 lives”.

The main ceremony in the capital was held at Wazir Akbar Khan Hospital. H.E. Mr M. Karim Khalili, Vice President of Afghanistan was the chief guest at the occasion. In his address, H.E. Vice President highlighted the importance of this year’s themes and the challenges being posed by urbanization in Afghanistan. H.E. Dr Suraya Dalil, Acting Minister of Public Health urged all development partners to make urban health a priority and emphasized the need for intersectoral collaboration to meet the challenges of urbanization.

Mr Peter Graaff, WHO Representative in Afghanistan, highlighted the importance of the impact of urbanization on health. He urged city planners, United Nations partners, civil society and community members to work together and to pool resources and efforts to improve health and quality of life and reduce health inequity in urban slums. The areas that need immediate attention include: improving cities’ health governance, reviewing the urban health system and ensuring better and equitable access to quality health services for all. Special consideration needs to be paid to the needs of children living in slum areas, their health and well-being. In addition, promotion of environmental improvement, job and income-generation for the poor, and the education of women are vital ingredients for a healthier city population.

Mr M. Younas Nowandish the Mayor of Kabul city informed the audience that Kabul had nearly 5 million people, and every day 2000 metric tones of rubbish were produced, but there was only the capacity to transfer 1600 metric tonnes out of the city. He said that a plan was ready to introduce compressed natural gas instead of diesel and petrol for vehicles in the capital in order to reduce air pollution and provide a healthy environment. Also, 200 000 trees will be planted on the hilltops on the outside of the city this year.

At this occasion, a Joint Statement was signed by the Ministry of Public Health, WHO and UNICEF, which aims to improve health care and empower urban communities across the country. The three bodies committed to supporting intersectoral cooperation and proper urban planning.

The year-long “1000 cities – 1000 lives” campaign includes initiatives on public consultation and debate, city cleaning and greening exercises, public health messages, free medical check-ups, sports and other physical and school activities.

Ministry of Public Health, WHO and Unicef are signing a joint statement about the World Health Day on Apr 07, 2010 to highlight their commitment for the issue of Urbanization and Health through the year. From lef (Mr. Peter Graaff, WHO Representative, H.E. Dr. Dalil, A/Minister of Public Health and Ms. Catherine Mebengue, Unicef Representative)

Mr. Peter Graaff, WHO Representative, Afghanistan is addressing the audience on World Health Day, April 07, 2010 during the WHD ceremony in Kabul

H.E. Dr. Suraya Dalil, Acting Minister of Public Health is addressing the audience on Apr 07, 2010 during World Health Day celebration

Links:

http://unama.unmissions.org/Default.aspx?tabid=1741&ctl=Details&mid=1882&ItemID=8475
http://unama.unmissions.org/Default.aspx?tabid=1741&ctl=Details&mid=1882&ItemID=8489

P for polio or progress and peace

“We can do it and it must be done” stressed Mr Peter Graaff, World Health Organization (WHO) Representative, Afghanistan, at the launch of the first polio immunization campaign, 14 to 16 February 2010 in Afghanistan.

For three days, 19,000 health workers travelled from house to house in 14 provinces to reach 2.8 million children under-5 years of age in southern, south-eastern, western and eastern Afghanistan. The immunization drive is part of an ongoing effort to eradicate polio in Afghanistan, which is together with Pakistan, India and Nigeria the only country still affected by the disease.

3.5 million doses of bivalent oral polio vaccine were required for this campaign, which is supported by UNICEF, WHO and other long-term partners, such as Rotary International and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Atlanta. “The progress that has been achieved so far was possible only thanks to the strong partnership that we have built over the past years,” emphasized Ms Catherine Mbengue, UNICEF Representative.

In 2009, six rounds of national immunization days (NIDS) reaching almost 7.5 million children took place. Four rounds of subnational campaigns (SNID) were conducted in areas where polio cases have been recorded, in order to stop the virus and prevent the disease from spreading to other parts of the country and across the border to Pakistan. Six rounds of NID and four rounds of SNID are planned this year.

“The eradication of polio in Afghanistan is tantalizing close, and yet we are still so far away;” said Mr Graaff at the campaign’s launch in Jalalabad. “I hope that 2010 will be a major step towards a polio-free Afghanistan.”

Female caregivers are the cornerstone in the realization of this goal. Since 2009, UNICEF and WHO have set up ‘women’s courtyards’ throughout Nangarhar province to include women in the immunization drive. Once a woman has become a member of a women’s courtyard it is her responsibility to spread the word about polio prevention by discussing it with female household members in her neighbourhood. This initiative aims to widely disseminate information about polio and other vaccine preventable diseases. Today, an increasing number of polio vaccination agents are female, with easy access to households. “So much has changed over the past months. Female vaccination teams have become the cornerstone of our fight against polio in the east. The involved women are amazingly dynamic and well organized;” said Ms Mbengue, especially in rural Afghanistan where women are sometimes hampered by traditions. The women’s courtyards have opened up the path towards empowerment. As vaccination agents and community mobilizers women are taking an active role in the fight against the crippling disease.

Each polio immunization campaign is composed of three phases. First, female community mobilizers wander from door to door to sensitize families on the importance of vaccination; shortly afterwards they are followed by vaccination teams who visit the children at home. As many families live far from health facilities this mobile approach is essential in reaching a maximum of children in the target group. At the end of each campaign day the immunization teams meet to compile their statistics and discuss problems encountered. Remarkably, male and female vaccinators meet in the same room with equal rights of speech.

Yet, despite ongoing efforts, circulation of the polio virus continues. 38 cases have been reported in 2009, seven more than the year before. Lack of community awareness and inadequate health infrastructure are among the major concerns. Population movement from polio-free areas to polio-endemic locations and vice-versa are another concern, especially along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. With the support of Rotary International, vaccination checkpoints have been set up at both sides of the border to make sure that children crossing into the respective countries are being vaccinated.

The first and foremost concern is insecurity. As access of vaccination teams to children living in conflict-affected areas is limited, an average of 100 000 children cannot be reached through either vaccination campaigns or routine immunization efforts.

“We should not forget that health is neutral. The right to vaccination is not being denied by anybody. Please do not only allow the immunization campaign to take place, but facilitate access for the vaccinators to your children;” pleaded Mr Graaff.

Ms Mbengue concluded the launching event with words of hope: “We can eradicate polio, with partnership and peace. Our efforts mean progress for the children of Afghanistan, Pakistan and worldwide – today and tomorrow.”

Written by
Cornelia Walther
Communication Specialist
UNICEF Afghanistan

WHO conducts workshop on managing medicine supplies, in collaboration with the Ministry of Public Health, Afghanistan

WHO organized a one-week capacity-building workshop on managing medicine supplies in collaboration with the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) from 9 to 14 January 2010. The main objective of the workshop was to train trainers in the field of pharmaceutical management. Twenty pharmacists from the MoPH, both central and provincial levels, and national hospitals attended this workshop, which comprehensively covered all the important topics regarding the management of medicine supplies, including selection, procurement, storage and distribution and use of medicines. Facilitators working with the strengthening of pharmaceutical systems and management sciences for health also contributed by facilitating some of the sessions. At the end of the workshop Mr Peter Jan Graaff, WHO Representative, and Ms Aisha Norzaee, Director Avicenna Pharmaceutical Institute, MoPH, distributed certificates among participants who had successfully completed the workshop.